Part of a double docu Sundance and New Directors/New Films selected pick-up, Zeitgeist have acquired The Oath from helmer Laura Poitras and have pegged it with a release sometime this May. This makes it two for two between the distributor and Poitras – they last paired on the release of My Country, My Country in 2006.
This alternates between Abu Jandal in Yemen (repeatedly seen behind the wheel of his taxi) and Salim Hamdan behind bars in Guantanamo, awaiting and then undergoing trial in military court. Since Poitras and D.P. Kirsten Johnson were denied access to Hamdan before and during trial, his story is told through his pained prison letters, accompanied by stark, oddly beautiful exterior shots of Guantanamo prison. Defended by U.S. military attorney Brian Mizer, whose commitment to serving his client is unswerving, Hamdan claims that he was strictly bin Laden’s driver.